Yeah that is a concern we think a lot about. It mostly comes down to the facilitator and protocols we've developed with our care and curriculum team that go into place when any "toxic topics" get touched on.
Currently we've adopted the requirements and interviewing strategies from leading support groups such as Mental Health America.
Surprisingly there are a lot of thoughtful people out there with solid experiences facilitating discussions/conversations and this has not been a bottleneck for us!
Good points! We've thought a lot about this and how to make the 1 hour as meaningful as possible. Three things that may help with this:
1) we do breakout rooms so members have more time to talk with one another.
2) groups are capped at the 8 person mark.
3) depending on the week, not everyone is always hoping to chat/share, sometimes members just wish to listen that day.
Shimmer (https://shimmer.care) offers guided video support groups for people struggling with their mental health. Shimmer matches members with shared identities and experiences and places them in small groups that meet for weekly support sessions along with a qualified peer coach. During the rest of the week, members have access to our Community Platform (a mobile app and web app) to leverage resources like community events, mood tracking, and gratitude journaling.
79% of young adults with mental health issues do not have access to care; the most common alternative, teletherapy, is expensive ($150/session), has significant churn (40% drop off after first visit), and lacks diverse representation (average age of 51 and 80% white). We've developed a curriculum incorporating material from expert group therapists at UCSF. This has led to a number of great outcomes including: providing care at a fraction of the cost of therapy ($50/month or $12/session), an 80% 4-month retention rate, and a diverse set of highly experienced facilitators that members can relate better to. If you're interested in trying Shimmer, you can sign up for a consultation call or a wellness workshop (both for free) directly on our website. Shimmer is led by three founders with extensive experience across healthcare and engineering. Having seen firsthand the severe effect that mental health issues have had on loved ones, we left previous roles (graduate programs at Berkeley MBA/MPH, UCSF MD and Salesforce SWE) to dedicate ourselves to improving the accessibility and affordability of mental health care.